FM power to the people: FCC to offer noncommercial licenses

Pump up the volume: for one week in October, the FCC will accept applications …

Although the airwaves belong to the public, you can't go around broadcasting on them willy-nilly. In order to be able to make use of them, you'll need permission from the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), which was placed in charge of TV and radio communications by Congress in 1934. Now, the FCC is set to do something about that barrier to entry—for a short time at any rate. Later this year, the FCC will be accepting applications for noncommercial educational FM station licenses during a one-week window in October.

Starting October 12, local nonprofits and other organizations will be able to apply for their own full-power FM station, provided that there is space available in the spectrum. This rules out the largest cities in the US, but elsewhere in the country, if there's room on the left-hand side of the FM dial (between 88.1MHz and 91.9MHz), you might be tuning in to a new station.

A common complaint these days has to do with the consolidation of media outlets by a handful of major corporations, leading to a homogenization of content. We've covered the growing distrust towards these media outlets in the past, and how the Internet, with its much lower barrier of entry, is supplanting them as the major source of news for an ever-increasing number of people. These noncommercial stations could play a small part in creating more variety on the airwaves in the US.

If you're involved with a community organization and think a shiny new FM station is what you need, groups like getradio.org and radioforthepeople.org can help fill you in on what's involved in applying for a license and what you'll need if you get one. Although the application is free, securing a license could cost as much as $4,000, according to getradio.org, which also notes that you'll need to prove that a new station won't interfere with existing outlets. Once you've got your noncommercial license, you'll still have to pay for the station itself. Stations can be anywhere from 100 to 100,000 watts, depending on location. And once you do have a license and are pumping up the volume, you had better behave yourself.

There is no mention yet from the FCC how the impending move to digital radio will affect these new station licenses, but it's safe to assume that the new stations will be able to take advantage of new technology, like any other FM station in the country. This could prove to be another thorn in the side of the RIAA, which has been fighting for the inclusion of a broadcast flag that would prevent listeners from making digital recordings of radio broadcasts.